Contagious vs Pestiferous - What's the difference?
contagious | pestiferous |
Of a disease, easily transmitted to others.
Of a fashion, laughter, etc., easily passed on to others.
Of a person, having a disease that can be transmitted to another person by touch.
containing organisms that cause contagious diseases
* 1589 : Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations
* 1792 : Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
* 1853 : Charles Dickens, Bleak House
annoying, vexatious
* 1592 : William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part 1
* 1896 : Mark Twain, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc
* 1938 : Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster, "Superman" in Action Comics #7, page 2:
As adjectives the difference between contagious and pestiferous
is that contagious is of a disease, easily transmitted to others while pestiferous is containing organisms that cause contagious diseases.contagious
English
(wikipedia contagious)Adjective
(en adjective)- The flu was so contagious that everybody in town got sick!
- Wearing jeans was a contagious fad at that time.
- They were highly contagious , spreading bacteria to other people.
Synonyms
* (of a disease) catching, infectious * infectiousAntonyms
* non-contagiousDerived terms
* contagiousness * contagionpestiferous
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- because he hath vouchsafed to preserue our nation from such fountains, from serpents and venemous wormes, & from al other pestiferous & contagious creatures.
- In these solemn moments man discovers the germ of those vices, which like the Java tree shed a pestiferous vapour around--death is in the shade!
- and bears the body of our dear brother here departed to a hemmed-in churchyard, pestiferous and obscene, whence malignant diseases are communicated to the bodies of our dear brothers and sisters who have not departed...
- No, prelate; such is thy audacious wickedness, / Thy lewd, pestiferous , and dissentious pranks, / As very infants prattle of thy pride.
- and if any could have hanged his hindering and pestiferous council and set him free, he would have answered Joan's prayer and set her in the field.
- Lois rescues Clark from the pestiferous curly...
